He will command his angels to guard you in all ways.

- Psalm 91:10

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Hank and Anna sat in the back of Leanne's car, with Bumbles in between and Rio riding up front. At the festival, Anna took the lead, with Leanne in perfect step as they resumed their conversation. Rio lagged behind to talk with Hank in private, while he led Bumbles on a leash.

"I don't know how, I don't know why," Rio said about Anna, "but all I see from her is Death." Hank screwed up his face in disbelief, causing Rio to speak with force. "I am begging. Keep tabs on her. Help me…"

"Save the world?" Hank interrupted. "From Anna?" he added incredulously.

Rio responded by stepping in front of Hank and pressing her hand to his chest. The yips of surprise from both him and the dog caused Anna to look at them from over her shoulder. She never missed a beat, however, in her chatter with Leanne.

"Hai," Rio said, very quiet. "Dōzo. Please show me what to do."

"Me? What do I know? You're the Reality Making Genius."

"You honestly think I'm a Genus? Just because I'm an Other? I barely know what I'm doing. You're the PEP Test Genius. Not me."

Anna had seen enough, and approached to step between them. "You know what you need?" she asked Hank, now very much in his face. "You need a new shirt."

"I do?"

She looked him up and down, ignoring Rio completely. After fondling the hem of his shirt, she ran her fingers up to the spot on his chest where Rio had touched him.

"This is the same shirt you had on when you were with me yesterday. How long have you been wearing it?"

"I washed it!" Leanne announced with pride, standing straight and tall.

Anna gave an evil grin. "Oh yeah. That's right, You were naked when I showed up."

"Mm-hmm!" Leanne replied, her entire body bobbing up and down.

"I was wearing a robe."

"Uh-huh." Anna pondered. "And where did you get that?"

"Me!" Leanne said with cheer, relishing being the card. "I gave it to him!"

Anna eyed up Leanne. "So he gets naked for you, too?"

Leanne's enthusiastic nodding made her curly hair fly everywhere. "Mm-hmm! It's nice! I like it!"

"Leanne…" Hank began to protest, before Rio joined the conversation.

"What do you mean by too?" she asked, speaking more to Hank than to Anna.

"Nothing happened! Leanne, uh, she took my clothes from me, and then she washed them."

"I wasn't talking about Leanne," Rio said.

Pleased with the commotion she had caused, Anna turned her attention back to the festival. "What will you wear tomorrow?" she asked sweetly, while taking in the view.

Hank shrugged. "I don't know. Something. You brought over my stuff."

Anna stuck out her tongue, still with her head turned. "Your stuff smells."

"Ah… I beg you pardon?"

"I'm serious. I'll have to fumigate the car before I return it to the PEP Center."

Leanne grabbed Anna by the arm and pointed at a bazaar. "Let's buy him a shirt!"

The two women scampered off, leaving Hank and Rio alone. They found a nearby park bench and sat to watch them shop.

"So how does Anna fit into this?" Hank asked.

Rio dug in her purse for her bidis. "She'll cause the end of the world. Right here."

"Then why are we hanging out with her? I mean, I thought you killed bad guys."

Rio exhaled with exasperation, so much so that she blew out the lighter while trying to light her bidi. She pulled it unlit from her mouth in order to speak clearly. "Maybe it won't be her fault."

Hank grew more concerned about the awful shirts Anna and Leanne were laughing at while shopping in the bazaar. He pet Bumbles with distraction, while Rio got her bidi lit and blew oily smoke at the night. They enjoyed being quiet together, letting the festival provide sound.

"She's strong," Rio said about Anna. "So good at what she does. Like those fireworks, she shoots Reality into the sky and watches it explode."

"So you think she's a mass murderer like that Miss Warugi."

"No. Okay? Maybe not. Maybe she's okay." Rio looked down at Bumbles. "If that stupid dog had found her first, I'd probably been ecstatic. But she is a witch. Mahoutsukai for sure. She's confused, I think, which is worse."

"You keep saying that. Why?"

Rio sounded crushed, speaking more to the dog than to Hank. "Have you ever killed someone?" she asked.

"Me? Good heavens. No."

She snuggled to Hank for safety. "Good heavens, no," she repeated. "Who would? Who could? Not if, in order to kill someone, the person doing the killing had to feel every part of them dying inside their very own heart. How do you live with that sort of black stuck in you forever?"

"Honestly, I really don't know. I think I'd die from the horror."

"I know, I know," Rio said, agreeing as he spoke. "So I think I too will die from horror. No matter what I do."

She snuggled a little closer, almost lying her head in his lap. "No matter what any can do."

He forced her to look up at him, and she gave a weak smile. "I'm so very sorry for you," he said. "I really, really am."

She gazed past his face, and up at the night. "Out there are more people like us. Good people who fight the good fight every day, never knowing how what they do makes the world a better place." She turned her attention to Anna, having fun with Leanne. "And then there are people like her. Unpredictable. Dangerous. But you see, I don't know sometimes what I do either. So who am I to say?"

"Yeah," Hank said. "Me too. We're the good guys, though. I know it."

Every fiber in his being told him to scoop up the broken china doll in his lap and comfort her with love and kisses, until she became whole. He stopped petting Bumbles to put both his arms around her, and she buried her cheek in his side. Anna and Leanne now shopped in a place where Hank could no longer see them, so he prayed they were showing good taste.

"How then does Leanne fit in?" he asked. "I mean, they're becoming friends."

Rio flicked away the stub of her bidi. "Like the way we're becoming friends?"

"We're talking about Leanne."

Rio made Hank look down at her. She blew the last of her smoke up at him.

"Leanne fits because I love her."

"I know. She loves the way you love her."

"I know."

"She can't love you back the same way."

"Hai. And that I also know. But you can. Can't you, my sweet Hank-sama?"

Hank thought about everything except answering, until strange words formed on his lips. "I love all of you. I mean… gosh, Honey Cup. I see it in you, too. So much love for everyone."

Rio behaved more like a kitten, purring beside her littermate. "Shut up. You're not supposed to know. Do you see how Aika does it, when you are with her?"

"She's good at being kind."

"It comes naturally because she's a Dreamer. Millions see the Realities she shows when they sleep. Make her show them yours."

Hank's attention was more on the fact that a beautiful woman had her head in his lap.

No problem, a part of his body other than his brain replied.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"What's that smell?" Anna asked when she returned, shopping bag in hand. She sniffed at the scent of bidi smoke lingering in Rio's hair.

"Bumbles took a shit," Rio said, knowing full well what Anna was doing.

Anna squeezed onto the bench to sit on the other side of Hank. Leanne then bumped her hip against Rio, until the four of them were tucked in tight.

Bumbles jumped and yipped, expressing joy over Anna's return. "What's with the dog?" she griped, pretending to be upset.

"Who? You mean Hank?" Leanne teased, before laughing loud.

Rio joined the fun. "You're the dog, Hank-sama. Ha ha! Chīsai koinu."

Hank disagreed. "Hardly. You're Leanne's wan chan."

Anna laughed at Rio and Hank. "Cute puppies? Both of you?"

"Mm-hmm!" Leanne said, nodding her head of curls. "And they both are mine!"

Rio made a silly face and tried to hide between her lovers. Leanne helped by reaching across to give Hank a hug. She squished Rio in between them, and caused her to let out peeps of protest.

"I'm their kawaī nushi," Leanne announced, squeezing them very hard.

Anna squealed. "Ooh! A love goddess! Yum yum!"

"Yup," Leanne confirmed. "That's me!"

"Anna is my dog," Hank said. "I have her on a chain."

"No, Hank!" she said, settling it once and for all. "You're the dog. Inu desu!"

"Rio is a chicken lion," he said next, to deflect the attention.

"Kokko-kokko, gaou!" Rio said in a muffled voice, still being squished by Leanne.

Anna was suddenly glum. "No. I'm the kokko chicken."

The other three quit goofing off and took Anna's mood seriously. Hank turned towards her to offer comfort, but Leanne was sure and fast. She leapt from her spot on the bench beside Rio and crouched at Anna's feet, ready to offer her shoulder should Anna begin to cry.

"I don't know what to do," Anna said with sadness, to no one in particular. "Fuji and the PEP Center… they're everything to me." She looked deep into Leanne's eyes. "I'm going to be the best PEP consultant ever."

Rio tried not to scoff, but few things escaped Anna's notice. "No. It's true," she said with conviction. "Aika has already called several times, speaking directly to me. There wouldn't be a PEP Center, or even a Genius in the city, if it weren't for her."

Anna cast her eyes down. "And now… this disaster."

She shut her mouth to keep from whining, and in the rare moment when she wasn't talking, Leanne took control. "Do you know what I do?" she asked Anna. "For a living, I mean. I fix things for other people. Sorta smooth it over, so business can proceed. Sometimes words get in the way, like when different languages are used. When different cultures are in the room."

Anna sniffled. "Uh-huh."

"I don't have a fix for this, for what happened to you and your friends. I know the right thing to say all the time, but you don't need words from me." She took Anna's hands. "If I may, I know something else that works. But first you have to trust me. Do you?"

Anna seemed unsure, but nodded her head anyway. Silently and with love, Leanne embraced the teenage girl in a mother's hug. The world went silent until, with gentle insistence, Leanne made Anna stand. Rio stood up next, to claim Leanne's other side.

"Let's go home," Leanne said from between, as she slowly walked towards her car. "So Hank is now the dog, for sure?" she asked Anna, to lighten the mood. "And you're a kokko chicken?"

"Uh-huh."

"And Rio is a lion?"

"Gaou."

"Well then, what am I?"

The other women thought for a while. "You're just Leanne," one of them said.

"Perfect in every way."

Hank groaned and rolled his eyes as he fell behind while tending to Bumbles' duty with a plastic bag.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The day had been a long one, and Leanne's tendency towards narcolepsy had its effect on her as she drove to her apartment. Hank offered to park the car, so Leanne led Rio and Anna and Bumbles through the front door of the building. Hank used the time he had alone in the garage to gather his thoughts. A lot had happened in the past week, and not all of it was good, but he felt blessed nonetheless. Taking his second PEP test turned out to be the best decision he'd ever made.

All three women were in bed by the time Hank got upstairs. Leanne had taken Anna into her room, while Rio waited for him with Bumbles in hers. As she was often prone to do, she said something odd when he entered the room.

"Look at me. I'm a pipsqueak."

All Hank was able to see of Rio was her head poking out from the covers. "Oh that's ridiculous," he replied.

"I weigh half as much as Anna."

"You're not even close." Hank stripped naked and jumped into bed, to snuggle quickly before the conversation worsened.

Rio snuggled too. "Leanne is charming her right now, just like she once did with me. But I'm a sourpuss. A grump. I complain all the time. Leanne is the happiest person I know, and she is sick of me."

Snuggling wasn't working, so Hank had to use words. "Phooey on you and your talk. I see right through your walls."

"With the world falling apart, I can't find a reason to believe different."

"I won't let your heart grow cold," Hank said into Rio's ear. "Last night when you slept in my arms, I believed in you."

A spark lit inside Rio. "I hope you see who I am," she said. "Who I really am."

"I can. And I want to make your place my home. I feel like I belong."

Hank's conviction resonated in Rio. She burrowed into his embrace before cussing him out with love.

"Why are you so kuso cute?"

"Speak for yourself, little wan chan. I've seen when you give that look—the puppy dog eyes you give me or Leanne because you know we like it."

Giggles and snorts came from Rio. The more comfort she found in Hank's long arms, the crazier she giggled. When he had heard enough, he did things to her that he knew would make her squirm.

But narcolepsy was a trait Rio shared with Leanne. He poked her in the ribs, then shook her to make her stop snoring.

"Oh. Koinu," Rio said in her sleep. "Chīsai? Are you Loverboy?"

"I've asked you not to call me that."

Rio sounded dreamy. "Mmm. Masutā. Sweet Love."

"Boy," she purred as her final word, before sleep struck her down for good.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Well. Things are going well for Hank. Wouldn't you agree?

This would be a good time to drop on dead body on him.

The Book of ABSTINENCE - Chapter EIGHT

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